The 90s

1992 
Nirvana: 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'

The single that catapulted Nirvana into the mainstream. A heady mix of metal and punk, with a structural dynamic that 
alternated Cobain's whisper with his guttural scream, it said all there was to say about America's lost 'Generation X', 
defining a strain of solipsistic angst that continues to echo through white American rock music. 

1995
Blur v Oasis

Britpop's big stand-off. Orchestrated by their respective record labels - and hyped by the pop and mainstream media - Blur 
and Oasis went head to head, releasing singles on the same day. Neither were any good, but Blur's 'Country House' was 
spectacularly bad. It went straight in at Number One.A couple of years later, when Oasis had eclipsed Blur as the biggest 
band in Britain, Noel Gallagher would be summoned to a New Labour victory party in Downing Street. The beginning of the end 
of Britpop and the hype that was Cool Britannia. 

MAY 1995 
The Spice Girls meet Simon Fuller

The Spice Girls were the most unlikely teen-pop phenomenon of the Nineties, not least because they were the first all-girl
 band in an era dominated by manufactured boy bands. They fused pop, rap and a strident, if inconsistent, 'girl power' 
message, and their meteoric rise was overseen by Simon Fuller, perhaps the most influential player in modern British pop. In
 retrospect, their first single, 'Wannabe', was a harbinger of all that followed, from Posh to Pop Idol .